Avalanche’s production reads like a miniature case study in studio-ledge creative warfare. Originally shepherded toward production with a script by Gavin Lambert (fresh from I Never Promised You a Rose Garden), the picture became the site of an open authorship dispute when director Corey Allen extensively rewrote Lambert’s screenplay and ultimately accepted a script credit. Lambert himself would later bite back, claiming Allen had “dewrote” the script — a rare, public-backhand in an era when such disputes were usually handled quietly. The creative tug-of-war was compounded by executive fiat: Roger Corman and New World Pictures inflated and then slashed the announced budget (figures floated between $2 million originally, climbing toward $4–6.5 million on paper), then pressured production to come in early. Allen publicly complained that the cuts and the heavy pressure on line producer Paul Rapp to accelerate the shoot were “detrimental to the film” and left him feeling the project’s aims were unfulfilled. The result was a finished picture that bore the scars of compromise — a glossy disaster movie with enough star wattage (Rock Hudson, Mia Farrow) to promise mainstream success but not the time or resources Allen insisted it needed. The fallout lingered: Avalanche became one of New World’s costlier gambles that failed to recoup its hopes, and its reputation as an enjoyably bad cult relic (it later appears in the Razzie guide and was riffed on Mystery Science Theater 3000) is inseparable from the story of behind-the-scenes clashes and executive budget maneuvering.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1970s
Corey Allen’s Bitter Battle Over Avalanche: ‘Dewriting’ the Script, Budget Cuts, and a Director Left Angry
Avalanche (1978) / Corey Allen / Gavin Lambert / 1970s
Avalanche’s production reads like a miniature case study in studio-ledge creative warfare. Originally shepherded toward production with a script by Gavin Lambert (fresh from I Never Promised You a Rose Garden), the picture became the site of an open authorship dispute when director Corey Allen extensively rewrote Lambert’s screenplay and ultimately accepted a script credit. Lambert himself would later bite back, claiming Allen had “dewrote” the script — a rare, public-backhand in an era when such disputes were usually handled quietly. The creative tug-of-war was compounded by executive fiat: Roger Corman and New World Pictures inflated and then slashed the announced budget (figures floated between $2 million originally, climbing toward $4–6.5 million on paper), then pressured production to come in early. Allen publicly complained that the cuts and the heavy pressure on line producer Paul Rapp to accelerate the shoot were “detrimental to the film” and left him feeling the project’s aims were unfulfilled. The result was a finished picture that bore the scars of compromise — a glossy disaster movie with enough star wattage (Rock Hudson, Mia Farrow) to promise mainstream success but not the time or resources Allen insisted it needed. The fallout lingered: Avalanche became one of New World’s costlier gambles that failed to recoup its hopes, and its reputation as an enjoyably bad cult relic (it later appears in the Razzie guide and was riffed on Mystery Science Theater 3000) is inseparable from the story of behind-the-scenes clashes and executive budget maneuvering.
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